Tips + Trips

Looking for a European walking tour? Wondering if hosteling is for you? Maybe you're itching to launch a life abroad but don't know how to get started. Explore my insider tips and trip advice.

Gadgets + Gear

Everyone loves to travel but not everyone knows what to pack. Read my road-tested recommendations and reviews on the best gear and gadgets for travelers.

Insights + Wisdom

Learn how exploration shatters old illusions and reveals new truths about ourselves and the world around us in my newest blog series, "The Internal Traveler."

Featured

Featured
GO NOW: 5 Cuba Adventures for 2015
GO NOW: 5 Cuba Adventures for 2015

Do improved relations between Cuba and the U.S. have you eager to visit the island before broader tourism changes it forever? Here are 5 Cuba adventures for 2015 with government-approved permits that legally allow Americans to go now. 

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What Happens When Your Suitcase Dies?
What Happens When Your Suitcase Dies?

I admit it: I’m tough on luggage. 

I’ve trailed suitcases across bumpy cobbled streets, down muddy rainforest trails, up sand dunes and along frozen tundra. I’ve watched my luggage be tossed atop third world buses, piled into donkey carts and jungle canoes. 

So, after my Eagle Creek carry on rattled around in a safari trailer for a few weeks and loosened some screws and years of dust and dirt eventually clogged the telescoping handle, guess what happened when I returned it? 

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My Scottish Thanksgiving
My Scottish Thanksgiving

The year was 1991. I was twenty-eight, optimistic, and an American teaching maths in Forres, Scotland. When I invited the nine members of the maths department and their plus-ones to a traditional Thanksgiving meal, it would take the Church of Scotland, the butcher Macdonald, and the Royal Air Force to make it happen.

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